Thursday, March 5, 2015

Sustainability on Steroids: Organic Farmer Grosses $100K an Acre

We need GMOs to feed the world like a fish needs dry land. A
controversial farmer in California is proving that a veritable bumper
crop can be had using new farming methods that don’t require GMO pesticides, herbicides, or even weeding, and require 10 times less water than the average farm. The best part – he earned $100K per acre last season without even harvesting all of his land.

What kind of super-fertilizer allows Paul Kaiser to grow so much food on a mere 8 acres? Lot’s of rotten food scraps and rotten plants – otherwise known as compost. And he uses loads of it.

He uses farming practices both old, and cutting-edge-new so well that agricultural specialists
from University of California at Davis who have tested his top soil can
drive a four-foot steel pole all the way through his fields. This, as
opposed to most parts of California, where it would hit infertile
hard-pan in less than 12 inches.

Last year, Kaiser’s farm located in Sonoma Valley, CA grossed more than $100,000 an acre, too. This is ten times the average for most farmers of this area, even in lucrative wine-country.

His farm is no mega-farm, either. At just under 8 acres, he is
beating even other large organic farms because the soil is still so
damaged in other conventional and organic farms alike. He is certainly
out-performing Big Ag methods of farming as his unique farming practices
have turned the soil into a goldmine.

Kaiser also doesn’t plow his fields (which means a lot less work) and
he uses around 10 times less water than his peers. His neighbors still
run sprinklers, but he waters for about an hour a week, using almost
exclusively drip irrigation. This means that while California is still
recovering from a drought, most farmers are watering the air – since
most of the water is lost to evaporation. Kaiser is watering – how novel
an idea – just his plants.

Kaiser uses a thick, acrylic blanket to keep both soil and compost piles
covered. Most farmers, if the cover soil at all, us immense plastic
sheets, which end up each year in the landfill. “These blankets last me
10 years!”

Many California farmers recently spent millions tanking in water to
try to save their crops, while Kaiser just made a healthy annual salary
for even most high-paid lawyers. Water was being sold on the black market for ridiculous prices, but you can bet Kaiser wasn’t paying them.

Kaiser is a bit of a mad genius, and a dreamer, too. He rattles off
statistics at local talks he gives about exactly how he grows so
sustainably, often including surprising facts. For example, he leaves
his roots in the ground after harvest to feed the worms. He sounds a bit
like a Martin Luther King for growing green:

“Sustainable farming methods are just one corner,” he
said. “Economic sustainability is another, and social sustainability is
the third.”

During a recent Sunday
farmers’ market, representatives of several different agricultural
organizations approached Kaiser, each asking him for advice. Now, when
billed for talks, he often packs the house.

Kaiser envisions small farms near every city around the globe, even
in the most dry, arid climates, and with the proof of his own sweat, and
soil, I believe his dream is possible.

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